Samba safe sex message draws ire

Grande Rio's artistic director is no stranger to controversy

A Brazilian samba group has agreed to tone down its sexually explicit floats during the Rio carnival on Sunday after prosecutors threatened to ban them.

The Grande Rio school will cover up some of its displays, which include a giant Adam and Eve making love and positions from the Kama Sutra.

Prosecutors argued that the figures were bordering on pornographic.

But the group says their samba theme promotes condom use and safe sex rather than promiscuity.

Frank message

"Let's Wear the Little Shirt, My Love," is Grande Rio's song this year, a slang reference to wearing a condom.

The school has been praised by Health Minister Humberto Costa for its efforts to deal frankly with the issue of safe sex, the Associated Press reported

Officials from the United Nations anti-Aids programme have also been supportive.

"Integrating HIV prevention messages into popular events is an effective way to educate young people about Aids and ultimately prevent new infections," Dr Luiz Loures said in a statement.

But Rio prosecutor Andrea Rodrigues Amin, acting on a complaint from the Association of Catholic Legal Scholars, said Grande Rio's theme had gone too far.

"Some figures inspired by the Kama Sutra, by their proportion, by their size... you can see that they have gone beyond erotic and already border on the pornographic," she told AP.

Free condoms

The reaction of church leaders in the world's biggest Roman Catholic country has been relatively muted.

Costumes tend to be minimal but outright nudity is banned

"If it seeks to discredit, in the eyes of the world, Rio's carnival - that can be so beautiful - through one or another indecorous or unacceptable scene, then justice should intervene for the common good," Rio Archbishop Eusebio Oscar Scheid said.

Grande Rio's president Helio de Oliveira said they would make minor changes, covering up a bit but not hiding anything totally.

Carnival gets under way on Friday, climaxing with parades on Sunday and Monday by Rio's top samba schools.

The Brazilian government is planning to distribute 10 million free condoms during the festivities and is running advertisements encouraging people to use them.